Northwest Arkansas by the numbers

Statistics about Northwest Arkansas tell the story of the region’s robust growth and its impressive business community. Low unemployment rates, job growth, rapid population growth and increasing diversity are hallmarks of Northwest Arkansas.

We created a unique, stats-filled profile of Northwest Arkansas, combining the statistics you’d expect to learn about a region as well as a few others that we dug deep to figure out. We update this information regularly.

The statistics about Northwest Arkansas often draw the attention of national media publications when they go about determining which regions are the best places to live, best for attending college, and so on. A list of recent rankings by a variety of publications can be found elsewhere on this website.

This page was last updated in December 2018.

Metropolitan area

This section highlights numbers about the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), a region more commonly referred to as Northwest Arkansas. The area includes Benton, Madison and Washington counties in Arkansas and McDonald County in Missouri. The area is shown in the green map on this page. There are hundreds of statistics about MSAs, but we'll focus on just a few.

People Added Per Day: 33.6 in the most recent year; 28 per day since April 2010. The U.S. Census Bureau makes new population estimates public again in March, and it’s typical for the Northwest Arkansas region to exceed previous growth rates.

November 2018 Population: 552,400 residents by the middle of the month. That's a Northwest Arkansas Council estimate that assumes the 28-people-a-day increase in population between the 2010 Census and the U.S. Census Bureau's population estimate of July 1, 2017 has continued. The Census Bureau estimated the July 1, 2017 population to be 537,463.

MSA Size: The Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers MSA is officially the nation's 104th largest. However, a Northwest Arkansas Council analysis, based U.S. Census Bureau estimates, shows the region's population exceeds the Youngstown, Ohio MSA (No. 103) and the Lancaster, Pennsylvania MSA (No. 102). The region probably passes Scranton, Pennsylvania next, and that should be in January 2019.

Growth: While Northwest Arkansas is not yet a Top 100 MSA, its rate of growth from July 2016 to July 2017 was faster than 96 of the nation's 100 largest MSAs.

Top 100: Northwest Arkansas is on pace to be one of the nation's 100 largest MSAs in 2019, a Northwest Arkansas Council analysis shows. Reaching Top 100 status matters because many national publications and researchers focus on the Top 100 when they compare regions. Some think tanks, including the Brookings Institution, focus economic rankings on the Top 100.

DIVERSITY

Diversity: A Look at How Northwest Arkansas' Population is Changing was published by the Northwest Arkansas Council in December 2017, and it shows how much the region's population has transformed since 1990. By 2022, the region will be nearly 18 percent Hispanic/Latino. The Asian and Pacific Islander populations will continue to increase, too, and most of the region's minority populations are becoming larger and larger portions of the overall population. One of the world's largest populations of people from the Marshall Islands lives in Springdale, Northwest Arkansas' second largest city.

The Economy

Total Nonfarm Employment: There were 261,100 workers in the region in October 2018, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. There were about 150,000 jobs in the region as of mid-1998 so things have really ramped up in Northwest Arkansas.

Unemployment Rate: 2.7 percent in October 2018, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Few regions in the U.S. can match the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers MSA when it comes to unemployment rate.

Gross Metropolitan Product: $28.5 billion. That's the 2017 number published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis in September 2018. It means the MSA is the nation's 93rd largest economy. The size of the economy has increased 37.6 percent ($7.8 billion) since 2012, and that’s the 15th fastest growth rate in the nation, bureau statistics show. The growth rate far exceeds the metropolitan areas of Little Rock (up $3.4 billion since 2012) and Tulsa (up $300 million).

Tyson Foods, one of three Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the region, opened its impressive downtown technology hub in Springdale in late 2017.

Largest Employers

Northwest Arkansas' Big Three Fortune 500 companies — Walmart, Tyson Foods and J.B. Hunt — are the region's largest employers. What's remarkable about them is how impressive they are when compared to companies elsewhere. Fortune magazine keeps a map on its website that shows just how impressive the Walmart revenue is compared to all companies across the U.S.

Walmart (Fortune 1) is more than twice as big as No. 2 Exxon Mobil in terms of revenue. Walmart employs 2.3 million around the world, and that's almost equal to the combined employment of Kroger, Home Depot, Lowe’s, McDonald’s, Target, Walgreens and Starbucks.

Money

Per Capita Personal Income: $59,425 in 2017, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The amount climbed beyond $50,000 for the first time in 2014.

Cost of Living: Here's where Northwest Arkansas really pays off. While people may be able to earn more elsewhere (but that’s not as true now as it was a few years ago), a person's purchasing power is amazing in Northwest Arkansas. A person making $60,000 in Northwest Arkansas would need to make $75,202 in Denver to have equal purchasing power. They’d need to make $83,004 in Chicago and $129,552 in San Francisco. That last number is twice as much. Wow.

The CNN Money cost-of-living calculator used to make those comparisons can be used to compare Northwest Arkansas to any U.S. metropolitan area. Additionally, there's a cool Bankrate.com cost-of-living calculator that allows a person to get down into the cost weeds, providing information about such things as the cost of housing and grocery store products (peas, milk, chicken, you name it).

Housing prices are generally considered affordable in Northwest Arkansas when compared to other U.S. regions, but there are impressive, high-end homes in most cities such as those in the Black Apple community in a northern area of Bentonville.

Housing

People who move from elsewhere find housing prices are affordable when compared to other U.S. regions, but the Northwest Arkansas home prices are rising.

Records kept by the Arkansas Realtors Association, which include only the sales handled by professional real-estate agents, show about 27 percent of all home sales in the state in September 2018 occurred in Benton and Washington counties.

The association reported that the average price in Benton County was $240,659 in September. In Washington County, sales averaged $230,210. More than 700 houses were sold in September 2018 in the two counties.

Arts and Cultural

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art attracted 633,000 visitors in 2017, and it's recognized across the U.S. for its excellence. Asher B. Durand's Kindred Spirits Charles Willson Peale's George Washington and Norman Rockwell's iconic Rosie the Riveter are among the most recognized paintings in the museum's amazing collection.

The museum in Bentonville is the centerpiece of Northwest Arkansas' thriving, growing arts scene. A study completed in 2017 by Americans for the Arts showed the arts and culture industry in the region generated $131.2 million in economic activity in 2015. That was way beyond the $45 million in activity noted five years earlier.

The opening of Crystal Bridges in 2011, the Walmart AMP outdoor music venue in 2014, Scott Family Amazeum children's museum in 2015 and the expansion of the Walton Arts Center in 2016 are widely recognized as major factors in the dramatic increase in economic impact created by arts and culture amenities.